Futuristic digital man, recovering PR guy, magic beansman, aspiring know-it-all. Chief Strategy Officer at Northern Army. More...

Social Media 201 – Class is in session

Nov 26 2009

When we all first started talking about this whole new “social media” thing, our biggest problem was the need to explain what exactly it was, why it was important, and show how it was going to change the face of business. Today, there’s still a need to help people understand the basics, but there’s an increasing need to move beyond the fundamentals and start thinking about how social media can be improved for those who have been working at it for a couple of years.

That’s why I’m extremely excited that one of my favourite bloggers, Collin Douma, Proximity BBDO’s VP of Social Media, and all around great guy is coming to Ottawa to speak at the next Social Media Breakfast, and that his topic of discussion is focused on the elements of social media for the people who are already doing it, and understand the need to join the conversation.

From the talk’s description:

Social Media is changing the game . . . We get it already.

Now what?

Where does if fit in the organization? What skill sets best determine a social media lead? Do you hire an expert, an agency or go it alone? Do we focus on the one-offs, or look at this as a discipline over the long haul. What sort of commitment does it take to really make an impact with your brand in the social space?

You can read Collin’s blog at Radical Trust and follow him on Twitter as @collindouma, but you definitely don’t want to miss him at Social Media Breakfast Ottawa #13 on December 3.

As always, the event will be held in the offices of Gowling Lafleur Henderson, our wonderful season sponsor. If you want to register, you can do so at http://smbottawa13.eventbrite.com. Hope to see you there!

Ignite comes to Ottawa

Nov 05 2009

Thousands of Twitter messages a day, hundreds of blog posts in Google Reader, folders full of research reports. Sound familiar? Being active in social media usually means being a glutton for information, regardless of the medium. If you’re a dyed-in-the wool knowledge addict, then I’ve got an event for you.

Ignite – an event consisting of a number of speakers, each with 5 minutes and 20 slides to enlighten the audience on a particular topic. Anything is fair game – from business to cooking to the arts.

Ignite was started in Seattle in 2006 by Brady Forrest and Bre Pettis. Since then, hundreds of 5 minute talks have been given across the world. There are thriving Ignite communities in Seattle, Portland, Paris, and NYC.

We’ve brought the event to Ottawa, and on November 12, 2009, The Velvet Room in the Byward Market will host our first evening of knowledge sharing – and we’ve got a great lineup to start:

Adele McAlear – Death and Digital Legacy
Jairus Pryor – How I Stole $15M from the Canadian Mint
Ian Graham – Coworking
Sue Murphy – Online Community
David Akin – Media and Technology

INTERMISSION

Kris Joseph – Shakespeare and Oral Culture
Scott Annan – You Inc.: We’re all freelancers now
Nick Charney – Public Service Renewal in 5 Minutes
Al Connors – Improv and Everyday Life

Sound like something that speaks to your inner knowledge addict? Then all you need to do to attend is head on over to http://igniteottawa.eventbrite.com and register for your tickets. It’s going to be a great night, and hopefully, the start of a new tradition in Ottawa.

Doing a little good

Oct 07 2009

I think most people I know are like me in that they wish that given all of the negative news we hear every day, that we could do more to help. More to make the world greener, more peaceful – in general, we want to do more change the world, but we’re not sure where to start.

My friend Faisal recently had the same epiphany – and his response was to create something that would not only allow him to make a bit of a difference, but to make it that much easier for everyone to do even a little bit of extra good for the world.

His idea was to create a plugin for your web browser called DoGooder, that allows you to alter the ads you see on any website, and instead display ads from charities, green organizations and advocacy groups. It allows organizations to get their message out to a plugged-in audience, and on top of that, 50% of profits are donated to green charities.

Is making a passive donation to charity enough? No, probably not. But it’s a start, and more than that, a constant reminder to do a little more to make the world a better place, while doing a little to help organizations that are doing just that.

The plugin takes about 3 seconds to install, and works on most browsers. Check it out at http://www.dogoodhq.com

Your anus is too tight

Aug 28 2009

One of the best books I’ve read in a while is one called Emergency by Neil Strauss. It chronicles his quest to become completely self sufficient in case of a natural disaster, getting lost in the woods, or some other sort of apocolyptic event that results in a Mad Max kind of society where Mel Gibson rides around the ruins of civilization wearing animal skin and hunting for gasoline.

As such, he finds it necessary to learn how to ride a motorcycle, despite the fact that he’d never even driven a standard in his life. After a number of stalls and burnouts, his instructor informed him of his problem – he was driving with his sphincter clenched, and that until he learned to relax, all the lessons in the world wouldn’t help his ability to ride a motorcycle.

The notion immediately made sense to me. I studied jiu-jitsu for about four years, and while I was fairly technically proficient, I was always called out by my instructor for being “too stiff”. Jiu-jistu is a martial art that’s entirely based in fluid motion in which the entire body works together. A punch begins in your feet – a throw is entirely controlled by your stance. Like the force of a whip comes from the energy transferred along its length, the fluidity of motion is what allows a 215 pound male to be thrown through the air by a 13-year old girl (true story). Introducing tension in the fluid motion interrupts the flow, and weakens the entire stance.

The point of this rather long-winded story is this: one of the biggest problems I see in organizations that want to get into social media is this stiffness, which is usually one borne of fear. Fear that someone will say the wrong thing, that the organization will be criticized, that someone out there will use your words against you. But, like tension in a throw weakens your stance, tension in your communications weakens your message. The result is seen all over the web in the form of sanitized marketing-speak, safe (read: boring) blog posts, and corporate communiques that no one in their right mind could possibly find interesting.

This isn’t to say that you don’t need to be careful what you say on the web – far from it. However, just like you need to learn to ride a motorcycle or hip toss an attacker, you need to learn and explore social media by doing it. By engaging in the community, by making mistakes, and by allowing yourself to communicate fluidly.

I completely understand the fear and trepidation that comes before submitting a press release for distribution, an email marketing piece for delivery or sending a large print job to press. The thing is, social media doesn’t have the same gravity of these things. Mistakes are easily corrected, and as long as what you’re saying and doing in these realms doesn’t fly in the face of the community or step on ethical guidelines, you’ll recover – and you’ll learn.

Posting something uninteresting on Twitter is not a failure. Missing opportunities to engage customers in dialogue because of a fear of saying the wrong thing definitely is. Just relax.

When was the last time you updated your crisis plan?

Aug 27 2009

Crisis preparedness has always been an important part of communications, but it’s especially so now that practically every employee, customer and competitor has access to a global publishing platform. But even those companies who have been through the planning and training may be left completely unprepared in times of a real crisis if they’re not ready for a completely different communications landscape.

So, when did you last update your crisis plan? If it’s more than three years ago, then chances are that it’s woefully out of date. Think back to 2006. Facebook was only beginning to gain popularity. Twitter hadn’t even seen the light of day. YouTube had not yet been acquired by Google, and there were still those predicting its failure.

Now, look at the landscape today. News is breaking through Twitter long before it reaches the cable news networks. Online video is one of the most popular online activities, with dozens of video sharing sites now occupying the space that was predicted to be a non-entity.

Time has always been of the essence when it comes to responding to a crisis, but that time window has been cut dramatically shorter in the past few years. The fundamentals still apply, but we have an entirely new toolset at our disposal, and if your crisis preparedness plan still focuses on dealing solely with the mainstream media, you’re ignoring a major channel that has the potential to turn even the smallest spark into a wildfire.

Things have changed dramatically in the last half of the decade. Crisis preparedness is no longer simply a phone tree and a dark site – it’s an entire playbook that needs to be rehearsed and refined in order to communicate effectively in times of crisis. The messages may not have changed, but the process has, and missing that fact is a huge communications failure.

Social media isn’t for every organization, I’ll admit. However, for any organization where crisis preparedness is crucial (which is most), social media absolutely needs to be considered. News spreads through social media, and it spreads at an alarming speed. Consider the US Airways flight that crashed into the Hudson river, and the fact that the first photos were seen on Twitter only 10 minutes after takeoff. The time for dismissing social media as a niche activity is over. You can only ignore a raging river to the point where it sweeps you into the ocean.

What’s driving your culture change?

May 10 2009

Since I started Fat Canary, I’ve talked to a lot of organizations about social media. One of the trends I’ve seen over the past year or so has been an increased need to bring social media into the organization – no surprise there. The interesting thing has been their reason as to WHY they want to bring social media into the organization.

Perhaps we as PR bloggers and social media pundits have sold our point of view too well over the past four or five years – frustrated by those organizations who “just don’t get it,” but more and more, I’m seeing smart and well-intentioned marketers throwing aside their usual focus on results and driving revenue – you know, that pesky stuff that marketing is actually ABOUT – to invest in social media because either a) their higher ups demand it without understanding it, or b) because the see it as “the next big thing.”

Don’t get me wrong – I think social media can drive excellent results for a lot of different types of organizations, assuming their willing to accept the risk and the culture change that it requires, but not every organization is right for social media. Some require major process and staffing changes that they’re just not willing to make for social media. Some already have the right culture without even realizing it, and with the help of their agency, can dive in and make a serious investment.

The question, when it comes to change, is very well articulated by my friend Joe Boughner.

It seems like I’m splitting hairs but I think they’re important hairs to be split. The tools shouldn’t be leading the strategies. The strategies must define the tools. If your business or association isn’t prepared to be conversational or open, stop trying to get them on Twitter.

I’ve spoken to a lot of organizations who wanted a social media strategy, only to find that what they really needed from us was a solid communications strategy. Sometimes, these included social media components, and sometimes they didn’t, but the important thing is that they were led by outcomes, and not tactics.

I think every organization should explore and understand social media, and that most would benefit from taking the intitial steps of at least listening to what’s going on in their space, but not everyone needs a Facebook page, just like not everyone needs a billboard in Times Square. Marketing is all about understanding your consumer, and bringing relevant information to them while enabling them to inform their tribes about your brand or product. Stop thinking in terms of new media and old media, and understand what your consumer really wants from you – then give it to them.

Getting past social media BS

Apr 13 2009

Let’s face it – we all know there’s a lot of it out there. The important question is how we advance beyond the advice of self-proclaimed experts and integrate social media into our marketing in a way that moves the needle for our clients or our businesses.

To answer (at least some of) that question, Chris Greenfield, product strategist and Founder & CEO of clever communications will be speaking at the next Social Media Breakfast on the topic Social Media Hype: Getting past the BS and making it work.

From the description:

When ROI means everything, businesses need to focus their social media efforts on their core business goals, with a realistic look at the resources and commitment required to execute well a social media program.

I’ve worked with Chris many times in the past and I can vouch for him being one of the good ones. He’s also an excellent speaker, so don’t miss the opportunity to see him in Ottawa. Book your ticket today – http://smbottawa8.eventbrite.com

When

Wednesday, April 15, 2009 from 7:30 AM – 9:00 AM (ET)

Where

Gowlings
160 Elgin Street
Suite 2600
Ottawa, K1P 1C3
Canada

This site is best viewed with utter contempt

Mar 28 2009

I’m not a designer by any means, though I have done both print and web design work over my career. Though my CSS skillz don’t really get me any farther than changing a background colour or adding a border to a DIV, even I feel the absolute disdain that web designers have for Internet Explorer 6.

While browsing through some web design sites for inspiration, I came across what is possibly the best “Best viewed with” disclaimer I’ve ever seen on a site from Tyler Thompson of Squarespace:

Hi, if you are coming to this site via Internet Explorer 6, you might not be getting the best experience possible. Honestly, I can’t even begin to think about what your entire experience on the internet must be like? (…probably like riding a bike on the highway while cars blow by you on their way to Costco to get gallons of mayonnaise and 60-inch plasma TV’s). How will you ever be able to use this website?????? You wont. You’re an asshole and your browser is an asshole. So look, I’m going to be honest: I kind of hate you. BUT we c-a-n make this work. Here is what I am going to need you to do: fire up your Toshiba ShitBook© that weighs about 45 pounds, wipe the Cheeto dust off the screen, download Safari ( http://www.apple.com/safari/download/ ), delete Internet Explorer from your computer, punch yourself in the face, and get me a pulled pork sandwich.

I couldn’t have said it better. If you’re still using IE6, you need to stop it. Even my Dad uses Firefox.

The myth of big

Mar 25 2009

John Farquhar, President & Creative Director of Wild Mouse Advertising, has written an excellent post on his blog today about surviving in a new economy. When big companies are laying off employees in big numbers, there’s a huge opportunity for the small guys who work smarter to keep growing – even when the going is tough.

That’s a huge change in thinking for many organizations who got where they are today by virtue of being big. But, the reality is that being big today is a liability – and an unnecessary one at that. The New York Times is competing against 4-person blogs for ad revenue. Microsoft is competing against 2-person startups and open-source communities for software revenue. In many cases, big does not equal better.

From John’s post:

How big do you need to be to create the best product possible? It’s probably smaller than you think.

Ford Motor used to hire shepherds to tend Ford sheep on Ford land to create Ford cotton to weave into Ford seats on Ford Cars. That, of course, seems insane today.

Technology is changing the way we interact with business, but it’s also changing how business is done. We don’t necessarily have to be in the same building / city / country to do business anymore. Virtual collaboration and communications technologies that were prohibitively expensive five years ago are now boiled down to a monthly subscription that’s less than you pay for your local newspaper.

It’s a brave new world out there… and a lot of the companies who come through this economy are going to be the ones who were brave enough to resist being big, and who kept thinking small.

Also, if you haven’t checked out John’s blog yet – you should. He’s got some extremely intelligent takes on what’s going on in the creative and marketing world today.

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